By joel Bartlett

   I’d like to start out by clarifying a few things about previous Wespeaks.  In general in my writing of Wespeaks, I am not trying to change people’s minds.  I am trying to build off of previously existing ethical backgrounds.  My goal is to just change people’s actions.  I hope to attain this goal through education.

   I think people are essentially good, and that they will make good decisions when properly educated.  There may be exceptions to this, but that minority is not who I am writing for.  People are generally nice to each other in day-to-day interactions.  Most people do not like inflicting suffering on others.  Yet we often do.  We inflict suffering, or neglect to relieve suffering when possible, because we are disconnected to the sufferers and ignorant of their struggles.  We can buy things from Wal-Mart or Disney made with sweatshop labor not because we are bad people, but because we don’t understand how horrible sweatshops are, and we don’t actually see the workers being exploited.  (I do believe that aside from understanding when we hurt others, education would also help relieve suffering because it would make us aware that we can best achieve happiness by working together instead of believing that happiness is a competition, an idea greatly reinforced by our capitalist and consumer culture.)

   I think our disconnectedness and ignorance are how we continue to support factory farms in the United States, even as they are being phased out in the EU.  When we buy a hamburger, we do not realize that we are helping destroy the environment, that we are supporting the exploitation of workers, that we are causing intense and unnecessary suffering on nonhuman animals, and that we are killing ourselves.  We might not even realize that our hamburger was the product of a factory farm.  We might have no idea what a factory farm is.  As with all aspects of our life we must educate ourselves so we can be better people. 

   Another issue that I would like to address if why I focus so much on diet even while I realize that there are so many horrible things we inflict on others. I believe that changing our diets is a small sacrifice.  Myself and other vegans and vegetarians can attest to this.  It would be grand for the environment if we decided to stop driving cars, but I feel like that would be a much more difficult change in one’s life than abstaining from or reducing the amount of animal products one consumes.  I also feel a draw to nonhuman animal issues because I think that the suffering of nonhuman animals is highly undervalued in our society.  I think that humans do not realize the levels of consciousness nonhuman animals possess.  I hope to change our understanding through education.

   I don’t want people to think that I see myself as a vast pit of knowledge; that I know everything and everyone should do what I say.  But I have devoted a great deal of my time to learning about certain issues, as have other students.  I am not your best source of information about why we should buy Fair Trade Coffee, or how to get fair wages for local workers, but I am trying to be a resource on animal rights/liberation and factory farms for Wesleyan.  Just as I hope people who are attracted to environmental causes will inspire me to waste as little as possible by using GOOSO paper and Tupperware, I hope to inspire others to modify their diets, and considerations of nonhuman animals.

   If you are interested in learning more about the issues concerning nonhuman animals please go to the Wesleyan Animal Right Networks’s website at http://www.wesleyan.edu/wsa/warn, or contact me at jsbartlett@wesleyan.edu. Thank you for your time and your attention.

Barlett is a member of the Class of 2003.